The Butte College Reading Series welcomed poet Gary Lemons, who is touring California promoting his new collection of poetry titled Snake. “This was by far one of the best readings I have been to; Gary is amazing man, and it was a honor to hear him read his work. I highly recommend purchasing one of his books of poetry, and if you ever have the chance to hear him read do not let his words pass you up.” Click here to read more…

Interview with Gary Lemons about his new book Snake published by Red Hen Press with J. Glenn Evans host of Poets West on Seattle Radio Station KSER. Click here to hear the interview…

Reviews and praise for Gary’s latest novel, Snake:

Snake is a brilliant, ambitious book of 63 dramatic monologues in five sections, almost 150 pages, on apocalypse and rebirth enacted by a cast of four, from an upcoming small press in Southern California. Lemons’ Chorus provides the commentary.

“Every truth got its dark side / Some folks call the lie.”

Earth kicks off the story by destroying the troublesome human species and all other life in retribution for man’s transgressions—except for snake, the central character, the tragic-comic figure of eternity and dream. (A fourth character, god, makes a deus ex machina appearance toward the end.) Meanwhile, snake has a job to do to “save the fire” that has engulfed the world. Throughout, he struggles with memories and unanswered questions fighting “in the closet of the brain / Like old suits struggling with moths.” There is more than a glancing reference to global warming here, but with his gift for metaphor and dramatic voice, echoing the great John Berryman’s “Dream Songs,” and with his light touch, Lemons keeps the text crackling with energy and verve. As he is wondering why “we got to being / Down the whirlwind on ourselves,” snake is simultaneously “salivating about the good taste/ Of a bone still got some of the critter on it” (“Snake’s Karma”).

Gary Lemons’ Snake is a brave and beautiful book–a trippy, visionary ride to the end of the world, where all is in flames except for Snake, who remains as a repository of all Earth’s memories and shared consciousness.

Lemons’ poetry is disarmingly simple, like a folk or blues lyric: “Time keeps on passin–til it’s not / recognizable as time but feels more like / Dreamin in a tide pool beside a warmin / Sea where blood sacks couple in the waves.” But there are hidden depths and meanderings, musicality where you’d least expect it. For a reptile, Snake is a surprisingly compassionate bearer of memory. He longs to be loved and remembered as were others who went before him: “Snake knows the dead be happier cause they got / One another for company and if he could / Only die, which he can’t, he never be alone again.”

While Snake is a long, rambling, apocalyptic dream that plays out in the head of a slithering everyman, it is also a tear-filled lament for wildlife and traditions we are on the verge of losing now–and a meditation on the push and pull of shared and specific consciousness as Snake fights to maintain his identity while almost literally carrying the weight of the world.

Snake is a wonderful fable, a trickster tale, a vision of a world set to fire by a vengeful mother earth, and some fine, chiseled poetry, direct and wisdom-filled.– Donald Powell, freelance writer(read review online by clicking here)

Poems

Learn more about upcoming events promoting Gary's latest book.

Poetry in Motion

Learn more about how Gary found an angel and began a life in poetry. Also keep up to date with the latest news and events.

Upcoming Events

Learn more about upcoming events promoting Gary's latest work.

Rattle Interview

The book feature focuses on frequent Rattle contributor Gary Lemons’ Bristol Bay and Other Poems, with an interview about his eclectic life in poetry and his years fishing off the Alaskan coast.